Christmas as a kid one last time

Yes, I am 27 years old, so I guess I haven’t been a “kid” in a while, but this is the last Christmas where my brother and I will be known as “the kids.”

This time next year, there will be a new kid in town — literally. It’s everybody’s favorite holiday accessory — a baby!

Best part about it? It’s not mine. Second best part? I get to be her aunt, which means I am in charge of giving awesome, loud, messy presents and bestowing sage advice like, “Bring a jackhammer if you want to eat DonDon’s graham cracker crust” or “If you stand in front of the TV while football’s on, someone’s going to throw something, and probably curse, at you.”

I am completely OK with this being my last Christmas as one of the kids. I can tell I’m getting older because my attitude toward the holidays has changed.

Since I’ve lived on my own, my holiday decorating has been sporadic at best. Some years, I did nothing. Sometimes, I put up a tree a week or so before Christmas. This year, my tree was up — and decorated — Dec. 1.

In years past, I have immediately changed the radio station as soon as a Christmas/holiday/winter song came on. A few days ago, I actually caught myself singing along to “Silver Bells.” I’m blaming it on the fact that it was the Tanya Tucker version, and I may have mistaken it for “Delta Dawn.”

Since my mom is now the only person with a Christmas break and the rest of us have to be at work the day after Christmas, we’ve had to alter our plans to spend the holidays with my Louisiana family. Since we’re all adults, except for my uncle’s 7-year-old daughter, we draw names for presents and each get one thing. We draw names over Thanksgiving and immediately say, “Well who’d you get?” and since we’re up to an equal number of Arkansas and Louisiana participants we all end up drawing our own immediate family’s names. After this year’s name drawing, I heard myself say, “How about we just not buy each presents?”I had a brief out-of-body experience after that, and I’m pretty sure I just stared at myself wondering who this stranger was that didn’t want presents.

But I did end my last Christmas as a kid just like a kid ... with a list.

Each year I am asked what I want for Christmas ... and each year I respond with “eh, I don’t know.” If I was forced to say something, it was usually cash or a gift card, both of which I love very much.

Most of my family doesn’t like to give cash, and they’ll usually only consider it if you have a specific use for it ... like five or six years ago when I asked for money for a new TV. Until I said, “I’m going to buy a large, flatscreen TV with the money; I will be going to the South Bend Best Buy on Jan. 2 to get the New Year’s deal,” I was met with a lot of “yeah, we’re not doing that.” I don’t want to know what they thought I was going to do with cash.

So this year, I finally just made a list. It started in October, and I made sure it had plenty of choices for both sides of my family. I certainly don’t expect them to get all of it, but I didn’t want someone coming back and saying I didn’t tell them what I wanted.